Interregnum - Richard Seymour responds to listener's questions on Gaza
Added 2023-10-23 19:59:42 +0000 UTCRichard returns to answer questions sent in by listeners on Gaza, Israel and the broader ramifications of the ongoing crisis.
Comments
Thanks for this, an interesting discussion, and something of a cleanser for much of the media coverage of these terrible events. One aspect of this I'm surprised did not come up is the use of social media as a tool by Israel to at least attempt to massage the assault on Gaza and to coerce those who like being able to pay their rent/mortgage every month into not expressing sympathy, never mind solidarity, with Palestinians. Specifically, I refer to a couple of stories that caught my eye in recent days. From the New York Times: "LinkedIn Issues Warning to Site Shaming Pro-Palestinian Sentiment The site listed thousands of people and grouped them by their workplaces after they posted on the Israeli-Hamas conflict." https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/world/middleeast/anti-israel-workers-website-linkedin.html From the Irish Times: "Internal Wix chat encouraged staff to support Israel’s ‘narrative’ in Hamas conflict An Israeli software company that employs 500 staff in Dublin encouraged its employees to create content supporting “Israel’s narrative” in the country’s conflict with Hamas militants in Gaza, leaked internal messages show. One message in an internal company discussion, set up by a manager in the days after the Hamas attack in southern Israel, encouraged employees to “show Westernity” in social media posts backing Israel, as “unlike the Gazans, we look and live like Europeans or Americans”, it said." https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/10/24/internal-wix-chat-encouraged-staff-to-support-israels-narrative-in-hamas-conflict/ On some level these seem to represent a tacit acknowledgment that the case for Israel's behaviour is so prima facie horrifying that people need to be threatened or prompted into not objecting to it, but I would be interested to hear Richard's thoughts on the actions described above given his more general comments about how those on the left have react and behave online when events such as Hamas' breakout and attack on Israelis occur and his own work on the Social Industry in general if you return to this conflict at a future date. For example, it seems banal/superfluous to point this out it's so inevitable, but that there is no hue and cry about Free Speech from... anyone about the Linkedin scraping and countless other examples of Palestinian support, sympathy, and solidarity being undermined by threats and limits on free expression is striking, especially when this is a topic so many warm to when, say, some celebrity makes transphobic remarks and lots of people stop liking them, or students decide to protest or obstruct racist speakers on their campuses. Whither Cancel Culture for Israel?
Mark Kirwan
2023-10-25 23:48:38 +0000 UTCThanks Juliet and Richard. Excellent discussion.
Rosie Meade
2023-10-24 19:35:58 +0000 UTCBrilliant episode. I could listen to Richard for hours.
Michael Doyle
2023-10-24 09:14:05 +0000 UTC
